I have quit watching wrestling ever since I went to Wrestlemania acouple years ago. I forget which one it was, either 18 or 19, when it was in Washington. I used to really like it but then I just stopped and haven't had the urge to go back to it.

Nope. Could care less about UnderSeller. Id give Vince alot of credit if he has Orton go over (itd go a long way in repairing the damage done to his aborted push as a hotshot World Champ last year) but I just dont see it happening.

Wrestlemania 8, 9 & 10 were the span of my interest (well, and the preceeding 1-7 I caught on VHS). About the only thing that piques my interest here is the return of Piper's Pit (because, well, Roddy Piper rules).

One of the reasons we don't have characters and comedy like that anymore, is Vince's insistance on everything being tightly scripted nowadays. Back then, the wrestlers were only told the key storyline points to hit. They had the freedom to get to those points by however means they wanted. Today there's the talent for the WWE to be just as good as anything else, I mean from the glimpses we've seen in the past you can't tell me Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Edge and Christian wouldn't become HUUUGE. Trips is still around, with Flair, and JBL has shown tons of potential with the stick and with his character. Not to mention there's an up-and-comer in Carlito. It's just the wrestlers can't improv their promos anymore, or just allow 'moments' to happen. The writers truly do script everything nowadays.

Anyways, I'll be seeing Wrestlemania tonight at the local digital theatre with a bunch of friends. It's a great place, heh, a digital movie theatre that shows the WWE PPVs for regular movie prices, plus they sell beer. Good stuff. Here are my predictions followed by what I'd want to happen:

World Heavyweight Championship
Batista over HHH/Batista over HHH

WWE Championship
Cena over JBL/JBL over Cena

Interpromotional Match of the Century
Kurt Angle over HBK/Kurt Angle over HBK

..eh, i dunno that it's the scripting so much as it is just forcing people to try to portray a character that they just aren't..

Edge and Christian were just TREMENDOUS as goofy heels, but when Vince tried to repackage Edge as this serious, intense face....It just didn't work. I could NOT take Edge seriously, he was so BAD playing the character...

Jericho, gosh, i could write a book on how frustrating that guy is... TERRIFIC on the mic, and a talented worker to boot. Unfortunately, whenever he's given the spotlight, he NEVER fails to screw something up..He just blows spots like CRAZY when the pressure is on..

I think that its more than that with Jericho. When he was given the WWF Championship he was effectively buried as a champion and his feud with HHH meant nothing. All of the focus was on HHH and McBoobs while Jericho was literally forced to clean up after her dog. Since he was never part of HHH's little asskissing clique than he would never get a shot at a real run with the title. Now he says he doesnt care, that it isnt about titles for him and never really was. I guess he just sort of gave up playing the political game and now he 'knows his role', if you will.

People read too much into this "HHH holds people back" business. Just look at Wrestlemania 18, and the Jericho situation. Yeah the storyline was screwed up beyond all measure, and the WWF basically showed Jericho had no chance of retaining the belt and basically almost forgot he was there. But that was all HHH and Steph? I don't think so. Austin was still working at this time, and in fact refused the Hogan program becaue of what Hogan did to him (and others) in WCW. Yet Austin had no compunctions about working with or putting over Hunter. You think Austin would work with another person who'd keep talent down so they could remain on top? The Wrestlemania 18 main event storyline was just another in a long-list of a blown opportunity that hurt a wrestler's career, thanks to a horrible idea and execution.

First of all, let me say that I'm almost 30 and pro wrestling is my one vice left to me. I was not a huge fan as a kid, but started watching in '95 or so and haven't stopped since. At times it's frustrating and maddening, but for the most part I enjoy it. I mean, it's live entertainment every week and there's no re-runs.

Wrestlemania 21 was worth the price for the 6-man ladder match (Shelton Benjamin is awesome and Benoit should have won) and the Angle/HBK match which was incredible, and the crowd there knew it too. It was great to watch execution at that level. The rest was predictable and true to form.

It might be the time period when I started watching, but I've always been partial to HBK and HHH. When either of them are hurt, the show hurts, badly. When they were both out in '02, I almost didn't make it until Hunter's return.

Don't get me wrong, Stone Cold and Rock are fun guys to watch, but they don't have the ring skills to keep things interesting over the long haul.

In all fairness, Smackdown pretty much sucks. They've had to manufacture main-eventers due to injury (Eddie Guerrero, JBL, Big Show) that they've saturated the top of the marquise with crap. It didn't help that Vince and Shane invested so much into Brock Lesnar only to have him jet. Cena is that brand's saving grace. We'll see how he handles the belt.

RAW has three young superstars in Batista, Orton, and Shelton Benjamin. Real talent and star potential. Shelton needs some mic skills and Batista needs to extend his mat-skills. The Pedigree isn't all that interesting, it's how HHH gets to the Pedigree that's the fun part.

The WWE is reallt only now getting over the WCW merger, and I think it's getting better because of HHH, not in spite of him. Without HHH's support through Evolution, RAW would be in the same shape Smackdown is in. HHH hanging with Flair because he is our generation's Ric Flair. I don't boo when he talks, I listen because he has his finger on the pulse of the business, and he speaks the truth. self diluted as it may be, it is the truth.

Sorry about the rambling, didn't realize I'd thought so much about this.

No way is HHH the Ric Flair of this era. He doesnt even come close to Flair's workrate and charisma when he was in his prime. If anyone is even close to being our generation's Ric Flair its Shawn Michaels.

Way i look at things: Michaels was in his prime during the darkest days of the WWF..

During the mid 90's, the only reasons to tune into a WWF PPV AT ALL was to see Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart wrestle. Those two carried the ENTIRE federation. While Hart was normally the one who was cheered, and was a very adept technical wrestler, it was Michaels' charisma and cocky-attitude that REALLY made the matches..

Rarely did those two guys disappoint in a main event.

As someone who has rented pretty much every old PPV from the local videostore that i can find, i can tell you that those PPVS, with all the cheesy cowboys and hillbillys who couldn't wrestle, were still MUCH more entertaining then anything that has come out recently with Hunter in the driver's seat.

I guess the best way to say this is like so:

I wouldn't hesitate to rent a PPV that had Shawn Michaels in the main event.

I wouldn't hesitate to rent a PPV with Ric Flair ANYWHERE on the card.

But a PPV with HHH in the main event? He just doesn't have that "oh wow, i gotta see this match" quality to him. He tries hard. You can SEE that he tries hard, but he just doesn't have what Michaels and Flair have.